Chinese Condo Developer Tied to New York's Sprawling Beijing Influence Cases Is Charged in Migrant-Shelter Bribery Scheme

Charged alongside a former Adams chief of staff in a bribery scheme, Andy Zhu also appears in a government exhibit beside Linda Sun and donated to the association behind CCP Police Station.
 June 26 2026 

This prosecution exhibit shows Andy Zhu, center, with the Carone brothers at a party at Zhu’s Long Island mansion, with a number of unidentified men and women.

BROOKLYN — Yan Po Zhu, a Long Island real estate developer who stood beside Linda Sun, the former aide to Governor Kathy Hochul now facing retrial on charges that she served as a covert agent of the Chinese government, at a 2019 New York demonstration against the visit of Taiwan’s president, and who also donated to the Fujianese association whose offices housed the Chinatown police station run for Beijing by the now-convicted Lu Jianwang, has been indicted in a sensational bribery scheme that prosecutors say monetized New York City’s emergency migrant-shelter program through a former senior aide to Mayor Eric Adams, with the payoffs laundered through a pair of law firms.

The developer, also known as Andy Zhu, is charged alongside Frank Carone, the power broker who ran City Hall as Adams’s chief of staff. Carone, prosecutors allege, accepted roughly $120,000 to steer a lucrative shelter contract toward Zhu’s hotel over the repeated objections of the city’s own social-services professionals, who warned that New York already had too many migrant-shelter hotels concentrated in Long Island City.

The hotel ultimately collected $6,825,000. All four defendants—Zhu, Carone, Carone’s brother Anthony, and Zhu’s business manager Crystal Chen—have pleaded not guilty and are presumed innocent. Eric Adams himself is not accused of wrongdoing.

Andy Zhu is no marginal condo salesman.

His company’s own description credits him with leading more than five million square feet of development across commercial, warehouse, mixed-use and residential projects, with completed work valued at over $3 billion—a portfolio that straddles the United States and China.

In Queens, the center of his holdings, his work has run to large residential projects: in the mid-2010s, through Triple Star Realty, he was tied to the Assi Plaza site in Flushing, where plans called for a fifteen-story mixed-use building with 265 condominium units. It is wealth on a scale, built on China-to-US investment flows, that placed Zhu among the donors and dinner companions of New York’s political class—his company’s website features him smiling beside four United States presidents, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and George W. Bush.

The Bureau’s reporting, alongside this week’s coverage in the New York Times and the New York Post, has traced a dense tangle of connections running from Zhu into Chinese state-linked financing and into the diaspora networks surrounding both Linda Sun and Harry Lu—community associations now drawing scrutiny from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which has pressed federal agencies over concerns that their tax-exempt status is being exploited in ways that could enable election interference, a concern the committee grounded in a Times investigation.

And Zhu’s real estate wealth carries Chinese state ties, The Bureau has confirmed. The data service PincusCo lists his Long Island City condo holdings as financed in part by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, a state-owned Chinese bank, including a roughly $13 million loan in March 2020 and an $11.4 million loan in December 2025.

On its face the case is a New York story as old as Tammany: money moving through brokers to bend a public decision. Zhu is charged in neither Sun’s nor Lu’s influence case, but his documented ties run into both—including, in the Sun prosecution, his presence at what amounts to one of the most overt acts the government has illustrated in photographic and video evidence, the 2019 protest against Taiwan’s president.

Just as prosecutors allege that Sun and her husband exploited the Covid-19 emergency to steer lucrative pandemic-supply contracts to favored Chinese vendors, the case against Zhu and the Carone brothers turns on the monetization of another crisis of that era—the migrant influx that overwhelmed New York City’s shelter system. Zhu’s hotel, the Microtel in Long Island City, had been rejected by the Department of Social Services as too small and too clustered among shelters the neighborhood was already resisting.

So Zhu, prosecutors say, leaned on a growing personal friendship with Carone, socializing at his Nassau County mansion and texting him the hotel’s address directly. “Thank you my big guy,” Zhu wrote in September 2022.

Within days the directive to reconsider the Microtel was moving down through the agency. By October a city official told staff the hotel had “come directly from the top . . . I know it is in Long Island City, but we should assume it is approved.” Career staff warned it would house fewer migrants in a crisis and force the city to open still more sites. The contract went through anyway.

What the money meant to the people moving it shows in a set of messages, originally in Mandarin and translated by the government, between Chen and an employee who wired the payments.

“The boss completely trusts the two brothers,” Chen wrote of Frank and Anthony Carone, through whose dormant law-firm account the bribes were funneled as sham legal fees. Asked whether it all came down to handing over the money, she answered: “In the end, it’s all about money and giving the two brothers a way out.” In the same thread the wiring employee spoke of leverage—that the payments had bought a hold that could be used again.

New York political access did not come from nowhere. Zhu is a prolific donor across the American political spectrum.

*Global Web of Chinese Propaganda and funding Anarchist/ANTIFA rioters in Minnesota & elsewhere, Leads to U.S. Tech Mogul

*Global Web of Chinese Propaganda funding Anarchist/ANTIFA rioters in Minnesota & elsewhere,
Leads to U.S. Tech Mogul

Neville Roy Singham, right, in 2016 with the activist Jodie Evans. In 2017, they married and he sold his tech firm.

Aug. 5, 2023 
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The protest in London’s bustling Chinatown brought together a variety of activist groups to oppose a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. So it was peculiar when a street brawl broke out among mostly ethnic Chinese demonstrators.

Witnesses said the fight, in November 2021, started when men aligned with the event’s organizers, including a group called No Cold War, attacked activists supporting the democracy movement in Hong Kong.

On the surface, No Cold War is a loose collective run mostly by American and British activists who say the West’s rhetoric against China has distracted from issues like climate change and racial injustice 

In fact, a New York Times investigation found, it is part of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. At the center is a charismatic American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, who is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes.

What is less known, and is hidden amid a tangle of nonprofit groups and shell companies, is that Mr. Singham works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide.

From a think tank in Massachusetts to an event space in Manhattan, from a political party in South Africa to news organizations in India and Brazil, The Times tracked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups linked to Mr. Singham that mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points. 

Some, like No Cold War, popped up in recent years. Others, like the American antiwar group Code Pink, have morphed over time. Code Pink once criticized China’s rights record but now defends its internment of the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs, which human rights experts have labeled a crime against humanity.

These groups are funded through American nonprofits flush with at least $275 million in donations.  

But Mr. Singham, 69, himself sits in Shanghai, where one outlet in his network is co-producing a YouTube show financed in part by the city’s propaganda department. Two others are working with a Chinese university to “spread China’s voice to the world.” And last month, Mr. Singham joined a Communist Party workshop about promoting the party internationally. 

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Protesters in Chinatown, London, in 2021. One of the groups that organized the protest, No Cold War, has links to Mr. Singham.

Mr. Singham says he does not work at the direction of the Chinese government. But the line between him and the propaganda apparatus is so blurry that he shares office space — and his groups share staff members — with a company whose goal is to educate foreigners about “the miracles that China has created on the world stage.” 

Years of research have shown how disinformation, both homegrown and foreign-backed, influences mainstream conservative discourse. Mr. Singham’s network shows what that process looks like on the left. 

He and his allies are on the front line of what Communist Party officials call a “smokeless war.” Under the rule of Xi Jinping, China has expanded state media operations, teamed up with overseas outlets and cultivated foreign influencers. The goal is to disguise propaganda as independent content. 

Mr. Singham’s groups have produced YouTube videos that, together, racked up millions of views. They also seek to influence real-world politics by meeting with congressional aides, training politicians in Africa, running candidates in South African elections and organizing protests like the one in London that erupted into violence.

The result is a seemingly organic bloom of far-left groups that echo Chinese government talking points, echo one another, and are echoed in turn by the Chinese state media. 

Because the network is built on the back of American nonprofit groups, tax experts said, Mr. Singham may have been eligible for tax deductions for his donations. 

The Times untangled the web of charities and shell companies using nonprofit and corporate filings, internal documents and interviews with over two dozen former employees of groups linked to Mr. Singham. Some groups, including No Cold War, do not seem to exist as legal entities but are tied to the network through domain registration records and shared organizers. 

None of Mr. Singham’s nonprofits have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, as is required of groups that seek to influence public opinion on behalf of foreign powers. That usually applies to groups taking money or orders from foreign governments. Legal experts said Mr. Singham’s network was an unusual case. 

Most of the groups in Mr. Singham’s network declined to answer questions from The Times. Three said they had never received money or instructions from a foreign government or political party. 

Speculation about Mr. Singham first emerged on Twitter among self-described anti-fascists. Reports followed in the publication New Lines and the South African investigative outlet amaBhungane. The authorities in India raided a news organization tied to Mr. Singham during a crackdown on the press, accusing it of having ties to the Chinese government but offering no proof.  

The Times investigation is the first to unravel the funding and document Mr. Singham’s ties to Chinese propaganda interests. 

Mr. Singham did not offer substantive answers to questions about those ties. He said he abided by the tax laws in countries where he was active. 

“I categorically deny and repudiate any suggestion that I am a member of, work for, take orders from, or follow instructions of any political party or government or their representatives,” he wrote in an email. “I am solely guided by my beliefs, which are my long-held personal views.” 

Indeed, his associates say Mr. Singham has long admired Maoism, the Communist ideology that gave rise to modern China. He praised Venezuela under the leftist president Hugo Chávez as a “phenomenally democratic place.” And a decade before moving to China, he said the world could learn from its governing approach. 

The son of a leftist academic, Archibald Singham, Mr. Singham is a longtime activist who founded the Chicago-based software consultancy Thoughtworks. 

There, Mr. Singham came across as a charming showman who prided himself on creating an egalitarian corporate culture. He was unabashed about his politics. A former company technical director, Majdi Haroun, recalled Mr. Singham lecturing him on the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara. Mr. Haroun said employees sometimes jokingly called each other “comrade.” 

In 2017, Mr. Singham married Jodie Evans, a former Democratic political adviser and the co-founder of Code Pink. The wedding, in Jamaica, was a “Who’s Who” of progressivism. Photos from the event show Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now!”; Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream; and V, the playwright formerly known as Eve Ensler, who wrote “The Vagina Monologues.” 

It was also a working event. The invitation described a panel discussion called “The Future of the Left.” 

Bill O'Reilly is raising awareness the ICE riots are being PAID FOR by a billionaire living in China “Here's the most important part of this whole thing, unreported — This isn't some organic thing. This is a foreign power, Beijing, using this American citizen who lives openly in Shanghai in luxury, knowing that this man is funneling tens of millions, probably more, into this country to try to destroy the government.” “There is a man in Shanghai, China, an American citizen. His name is Neville Roy Singham. He works with the Beijing government. He is funneling millions of dollars into the United States of America through 501s like Party for Socialism and Liberation, Democratic Socialists of America, Minnesota Immigration Rights Action Committee” “He is funneling money here to these radical organizations who are then agitating professional people, communists mostly, because Singham is a communist — and foster rebellion”

Carney's China Journalist Deal: A Catastrophic Betrayal of Canadian Security

OpEd: Carney’s plan to facilitate “two-way” media access with Beijing demands public safeguards—or it endangers sovereignty. 

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January agreement to facilitate Chinese journalist access to Canada represents one of the most reckless national security decisions in recent Canadian history. The deal commits Canada to “provide mutual support and convenience for media to work in each other’s countries” through a formal agreement with China Media Group, the Communist Party’s state propaganda apparatus.

Canada is an open society. That is our strength—and, increasingly, our vulnerability.

In the current threat environment—where Canadian police have warned a federal candidate it was unsafe to campaign, where Chinese-language ecosystems have been tied to intimidation campaigns, and where Canadian intelligence reporting describes Chinese media as a central tool in Beijing’s election interference—the proposal is not merely naïve. By enlarging the very channels through which coercion, censorship, and Beijing’s vote-fixing schemes already operate, it may be recklessly dangerous.

What makes Carney’s Beijing deal indefensible is not speculation about future risks—it is what Carney already knew when he signed it.

As Prime Minister, Carney has access to classified intelligence including a June 2019 NSICOP report and a 2022 CSIS assessment that The Bureau has obtained. The Bureau has also reported on these documents during Justin Trudeau’s tenure, in reports that were not contested, and in some cases, filed as exhibits in the Hogue Inquiry into Chinese election interference.

The most dramatic illustration of the danger sits in recent parliamentary testimony and documented threats against Conservative candidate Joseph Tay. In December 2024, Hong Kong police issued a $184,000 bounty for Tay, a pro-democracy activist and Canadian citizen, under charges of “inciting secession” and “colluding with foreign forces.” What happened next should have stopped Carney’s China “reset” deal—particularly the state-level media agreements—dead in its tracks.

In January 2025, Liberal MP Paul Chiang stood before a Chinese-language media news conference and told attendees they could claim the bounty “if you bring him to Toronto’s Chinese consulate.” Chiang also warned that Tay’s election to Parliament would cause “great controversy” for Canada. When confronted, Chiang claimed he was joking and issued a perfunctory apology.

Tay rejected it, stating publicly: “Threats like these are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party to interfere in Canada. They are not just aimed at me; they are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community to force compliance with Beijing’s political goals. This situation has left me fearing for my safety.”

Carney’s response was to defend Chiang. The Prime Minister called the incident a “teachable moment,” praised Chiang’s “integrity,” and refused to remove him as the Liberal candidate in Markham-Unionville. Only after the RCMP announced it was reviewing the matter—and international Hong Kong diaspora groups mounted a pressure campaign—did Chiang resign.

But Chiang’s comments at a Chinese-language media event were not an isolated incident.

They occurred within a documented pattern of threats against Tay’s campaign that The Bureau has exclusively reported and that federal authorities have now corroborated. On April 21, 2025—one week before the election—the federal Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force issued a public warning confirming a “transnational repression operation” targeting Tay’s campaign, featuring mock “wanted posters” and coordinated suppression efforts to curtail his online visibility across Chinese-language platforms.

But the endangerment of a Canadian election candidate via Chinese-language media channels is just the most high-profile and recent case of Beijing’s egregious abuses.

The Bureau reported in July 2023 on a high-level June 2019 NSICOP report, which can be read in its redacted form here. The unredacted and classified report, which cannot be read except in The Bureau’s reporting, states:

“PRC officials have used covert and unauthorized tactics, including unauthorized trips to Canada, threats, intimidation, harassment, arresting relatives in China as a form of leverage, paying Chinese-language journalists to locate and track individuals, and discouraging people from reporting their covert activities to Canadian police.”

Chinese police have paid Chinese-language journalists in Canada to locate and track targets. This is documented intelligence available to the Prime Minister in unredacted form. Mark Carney knows this.

The second critical piece makes the election interference dimension undeniable.

The Bureau has obtained and confirmed a CSIS intelligence assessment dated October 31, 2022, marked SECRET//CANADIAN EYES ONLY, providing devastating detail about Chinese control of media in Canada—a portion of which is posted in the headline photo for this opinion editorial.

The assessment states that “a PRC ‘takeover’ of Chinese-language media has transpired over decades.” It quotes a former editor-in-chief of a major Chinese-language newspaper: “Beijing has become the mainstream now in Chinese newspapers or magazine here in Canada. I cannot find a real independent and non-partisan newspaper here in Canada reporting Chinese affairs.”

CSIS reporting from July 2022 found that “almost all Chinese media outlets are controlled by local media associations.” Approximately 30 to 40 people in Greater Toronto Area “meet regularly to come to a consensus regarding what to publish.” CSIS assessed that “these individuals act as gatekeepers to ensure that whatever is reported in Chinese-language media adheres to pro-PRC narratives.”

Recall: Paul Chiang made his threatening comments about turning Joe Tay over to the Chinese consulate for a bounty at a gathering of Chinese-language journalists in Toronto—precisely the controlled media apparatus CSIS described.

The document itself reveals direct PRC Consulate control, in general: “The PRC Consulate contacted a journalist within half an hour of the article being published” about a piece casting a negative light on a Chinese company. “As a result, the journalist deleted the article so as not to offend the Consulate.”

Most critically, CSIS identifies media as “a target for foreign state Foreign Interference activities that seek to manipulate and influence key media entities, control narratives, and disseminate disinformation” during elections.

The document notes that during the 2021 federal election, “disinformation activities targeting the Conservative Party of Canada and a CPC candidate” were conducted through these channels.

Connect these dots: CSIS documented in 2022 that Chinese-language media in Canada are systematically controlled and used for election interference targeting the Conservative Party.

Paul Chiang made his threatening comments about Conservative candidate Joe Tay at a Chinese-language media event in January 2025.

That April, the Conservative candidate faced a coordinated transnational repression operation and lost after the RCMP advised him to suspend public campaigning.

Nine months later, in January 2026, Prime Minister Carney—a Liberal—signed an agreement facilitating Chinese journalist access to the very media apparatus that CSIS documented as targeting Conservatives and that enabled the threats against Tay.

The timing makes Carney’s judgment indefensible.

The government has known about these threats since 2015, when CSIS first alerted officials to escalating Fox Hunt operations. CSIS provided a “red alert” assessment in March 2018. The NSICOP report documenting Chinese police paying journalists came in June 2019. The CSIS assessment on media control came in October 2022. Bill C-70, the Countering Foreign Interference Act, passed in June 2024 but remains unimplemented—no foreign agent registry, no foreign interference commissioner.

Carney had all of this intelligence.

He signed the journalist access agreement anyway. He offered no public explanation of safeguards, no consultation with diaspora communities who face these threats, no security assessment to justify the decision.

Instead, he praised Xi Jinping’s “leadership” and called China a “more predictable” partner than the United States—even as Canadian federal authorities were confirming active Chinese interference operations targeting a Canadian election.

The questions Canadians should demand answers for are grim but fundamental to the nation’s sovereignty.

Did Mark Carney prioritize trade deals over the safety of diaspora communities and the integrity of Canadian elections? Or is his judgment so catastrophically flawed that he cannot be trusted to protect Canadian sovereignty?

What is certain is that Carney signed an agreement facilitating access for Chinese “media” operatives that Canadian intelligence has explicitly documented as threats to Canadian democracy and Canadian lives.